Share This Story!

Is state takeover working for failing Indiana schools?

Two years ago, Indiana decided it would turn around five chronically failing schools by turning them over to reform-minded operators. Today, serious questions have arisen about whether that approach is working.

Two years ago, Indiana boldly decided it would turn around five chronically failing schools by turning them over to reform-minded operators.

Today, serious questions have arisen about whether that approach is working.

The company operating Arlington High School in Indianapolis says an exodus of students and a funding cut have created a budget shortfall that can’t be closed. At Roosevelt High School in Gary, the management company and the school district are in a dispute over vital building repairs and utility bills.

The troubles are emerging just two years after the Indiana State Board of Education — spurred on by then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett — turned four persistently low-achieving Indianapolis Public Schools and one in Gary over to independent operators.

The state, the school districts, the school operators and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s office all have some degree of oversight over the takeover schools. But there is ongoing confusion about who has the authority to make decisions at the schools — even on such simple issues as whether they return to their former districts at the end of the takeover contracts.

Money is another problem: Some takeover operators say they can’t keep running their schools without additional funds, especially after plummeting enrollment gutted the schools’ budgets. Tindley Accelerated Schools, the nonprofit organization that the state pays to run Arlington, wants out.

And despite the improvement efforts, all five schools are still rated F academically.

“Our sense is this is going to take five years before you see a full-scale shift to what it needs to be,” said Indianapolis Deputy Mayor Jason Kloth.

And on top of all that, the takeover program has lost crucial political support in the state superintendent’s office.

Democrat Glenda Ritz, who succeeded the GOP’s Bennett last year as superintendent, doesn’t believe schools should be taken over. She said it would make more sense to give struggling schools more help than sever them from their districts.

Ritz doesn’t have the power to dump state takeovers on her own. But together, the pressing challenges of money, power and politics leave Indiana’s school takeover program with an uncertain future.

For-profit companies took over at four schools: Tennessee-based EdisonLearning at Roosevelt, and Florida-based Charter Schools USA at Donnan Middle School and Manual and Howe high schools in Indianapolis.

Tindley, a nonprofit charter school operator based in Indianapolis, then known as EdPower, took over Arlington. Each group signed a five-year contract with the state board.

Students leave, money follows

The four takeover schools in Indianapolis lost huge numbers of students — between 35 percent and 60 percent at each school — between the start of classes in 2011 and when the new operators took over in 2012. Schools are mostly funded on the basis of their enrollment, so the departures came at a steep cost for the private operators.

On top of that, the takeover schools saw their share of a pot of federal funds for low-performing schools that is controlled by the state shrink as more state schools became eligible to claim that money.

Earlier this month, Tindley shocked state education officials by threatening to pull out of Arlington shortly after the start of the school year unless the nonprofit could get $2.4 million in additional aid.

A task force created by the state board helped broker a deal, announced Friday, under which Indianapolis Public Schools is expected to offer Arlington the same amount the district would spend on the school building if it were empty — as much as $250,000.

Marcus Robinson, Tindley’s CEO and chancellor, said Arlington’s future would likely not include his nonprofit after this school year.

“If the business model can’t be fixed, it is a good time to talk about who to pass the baton to,” he said.

Teresa Meredith, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said it’s ironic that charter school operators now have the same complaints that traditional public schools usually have about school choice and other education changes in the state: They are losing students to competition and no longer have enough money.

“Be careful what you wish for,” she said of charter operators. “There are consequences, sometimes expected and sometimes not.”

New leaders, ideas

Robinson is not alone in thinking that Indiana’s takeover legislation needs work.

A new subcommittee of the state board will review the takeover process during the next few months. In November, it will issue a report that could include recommendations for legislation changes, additional staff to support turnaround oversight, or other tweaks to the framework.

The Indiana House Education Committee’s chairman, Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said he favors making changes to state law to fix takeover.

However, the state’s top education official is no fan of takeover. Ritz said she believes tailored assistance, rather than sanctions, is more effective than outsourcing management in boosting scores at struggling schools. “Do I believe you have to do a takeover? No,” she said. “I believe if you have the strong supports you don’t need it.”

It will be crucial to solve these issues soon. Even as the debate over the current takeover schools smolders, four more schools have reached five straight years of F grades — two in Evansville and two more in Gary — and face hearings meant to help the state board decide whether to take them over, too.

Scott Elliott is the bureau chief of Chalkbeat Indiana, a nonprofit news website that reports on educational change in Indiana. Eric Weddle is a reporter for The Indianapolis Star.